College is a great place, you make new friends, try new things, and have no shortage of homework to do. For me during my freshman year at Iowa State, aside from also doing normal college things like going to class and such I spent my time learning as much as I could about how people have made technology solve problems for society and everything that goes into making these Ideas a reality.
SCHOOL
In the classroom learning especially for Computer Science is usually seen as not being able to fully teach the skills needed to succeed in the field and this is why many student work on side projects, contribute to open-source, or do coding challenges. I have always been fascinated with the idea of working on my own project and creating a company. When I was in middle school I created a company that sold Model Rockets. I had a website, business cards, even an online shopping portal, the only thing I was missing was the actual products… needless to say endeavor never took off. I have been working on creating the next big company ever scenes then and with every failure the next project get better and more focused. College was the culmination of years of wanting to make a difference. I would make friends by asking the people sitting around me in my coding classes if they wanted to start a project with me, most did not, but the ones who did turned out to be really great people.
HACKATHONS
Something I got really big into at college was hackathons. I attended many hackathons my first year all around the Midwest, even get second place at one. Hackathons are great exercises in many skills that it takes to make the next big thing. Hackathons in a nutshell are a weekend long event in which teams of around 4 students create a project usually within a theme to solve a problem that they have identified. Being able to identify an existing problem and create a intuitive solution that not only meets the initial need but also generates interest and connection is an incredibly valuable skill.
Company Start, Legal
During the second half of the year after brainstorming so many ideas for hackathons and other projects I came up with an idea that I thought could turn into something, the concept hyper-localized social texting with an emphasis on privacy and in person connection. I spent a lot of time researching what was needed to start a company and how to succeed. I wrote out the initial concept, drew up a logo and got the code infrastructure started. the next step was to get my friends together and bring in help to get things going. I wanted to make sure that I was protected legally and that everyone on the project felt like they had the right amount of legal binding to the project and individual protection. I wrote out an example agreement and the met with one of the on campus layers at Iowa State to get some advice on the legal resources for this project. There are just too many stories out there of starting a company and people feeling like they are being treated unfairly and I did not what that to happen.
Concept/ Business plan
The concept of the app was to messaging platform from scratch to combine a few concepts such as proximity and local context. There were a few different types of groups that we would have all based on your distance from those you were communicating with as well as where you were located.
After the idea was written out I created a business plan with actions and rough timelines for the stages of the project. This went from creating a minimum viable product all the way to an initial release. This plan also laid out ideas for monetization and growth of the platform.
Organizing a team
After coming up with the idea and outlining an initial business plan I went around to my friends to see who would be interested in working on this project with me. Including me I had nine people who were going to get started working on this project.
We had a few meetings initially to work through everyone’s understanding of the project and discuss the first steps in the process of development of the app.
This app was in active development for a few months, fizzled out then after about a year after it was started I officially ended the project. Here are some of my thoughts of what went well, what I learned, and what failed.
Success’s
This project was really fun and it was a great experience for me in just going through the steps of starting a company/project. The work that is involved in this process is much more than it seems. From creating a plan to organizing a team and actually creating a product there is so many different hats that need to be worn for this and each different aspect has it’s own challenges and opportunities. Throughout this process I made some great connections with those on the team and learned a lot about this process.
Failure’s
Looking back now Whelo was destined to fail from the start. Here are some of the things that I now realize were not the smartest moves and what should have been done differently.
First there was no initial product. I had created everything but a working demo. Having something that works, even if it is only working at a basic level provides direction and something that can be easily worked on without tying multiple different ideas and opinions together. The work that goes into a project like this initially is extremely critical and without the proper amount of planning could set a project up for failure before it even gets going.
The company was started with way to many people. Before I even had a working demo there were 9 people involved in this project, as college students lives were busy and schedules were tight trying to keep 9 people on the same page and working together is much harder than it sounds. Starting small with just me to create a working demo and then as the app grows bringing on others as is needed is a much more sustainable way to grow a product.
Another aspect that was missing that we didn’t encounter but would have is lack of market research. The idea was conceived and the team discussed what we wanted to build but there was no work done to actually ask others if this was something that was wanted. Market/user research is critical for the direction of the product and forming how the growth and development is maintained.
There are definitely more reasons why Whelo failed but here are the main three reasons that I think are most obvious.
What I learned
There are many things that go into the creation of the next big thing. There has to be an idea, time and energy spent in creating a product, and then growth of the product. Through this process I have learned a tremendous amount about starting a project, recruiting a team, and working on its development. Hopefully those involved learned as much as I did and are not discouraged from being a part of a startup in the future. The world of tech is fast paced and ever changing and trying to carve out your own part of it can be incredibly challenging but also very fun and rewarding at the same time. This will definitely not be my last company I try to create!
Why am I writing this
I learned a lot through this process and wanted to share this information with the world. You mostly read about the startups that do very well, Snapchat, Vine, Instagram but for every cool startup that takes off there are hundreds of projects that could have been something cool that never do. While it might be discouraging to fail, every time you try something you get better at it the same is true with making cool apps/companies. This was my first real experience with starting up a company project like this and this information will definitely be put to use for any further endeavors that I do, hopefully you'll get some use out of it too.
What to consider before startup
There are so many people in the tech world that wish that they could start a company or make a cool product but don’t start for fear of failing. Building something new is always a challenge and takes a lot of work but if you are afraid of failure you should start anyway. Even though Whelo “failed” it was really fun and I learned a lot, working towards a goal no matter how many time you fail is really what success looks like. Hopefully by reading this article you can see what I did wrong with Whelo and learn from my mistakes to start further along in the process than I did so you don’t make the same mistakes. Also if you have no interest in making a startup this advice is also just helpful for schoolwork or any type of work that is multifaceted and challenging.
Takeaway’s
This article was my thoughts about this process, what I learned, and what to consider before trying again. If you have any questions about Whelo or about something I covered in this article feel free to tweet me @jonathannsegal. Also check out the repo on Github:
Top comments (0)